Benzs SLR surpasses the past

Named for the racing sports cars of the '50s, the arresting coupe stands out for its simplicity - and swing-up doors. JOHN LAMM reports.

30 September 1999

A new car can easily be a motor show hit. Displayed on a custom-built stand and bathed in flattering lights, even a mediocre automobile might look good. It is a tougher test to take it into the real world and unforgiving daylight.

But when Mercedes-Benz wheeled out its Vision SLR show car at California's Laguna Seca Raceway, the supercharged V8 burbling like a hot rod, and ran it down through the famous Cork-screw corner, it looked like a natural.

Mercedes has been carefully blending its heritage into today's vehicles. The SLR is the latest example, although it is difficult to visualise the link between the famous racing SLR sports cars of the mid-'50s and their modern namesake.

It is not difficult, however, to see how the McLaren-Mercedes Grand Prix cars influenced the SLR's quite dramatic exterior design.

In profile, the SLR has the sort of exaggerated long hood-compact cabin-short rear deck proportions seen in prewar Mercedes. It's a very lithe, athletic shape and it ends in a rather high tail - which is great for boot space.

Best of all, by all reports, the exterior design of the show car is about what we will get in the production car.

The feeling inside is simple, light and open, thanks to the light and airy glasshouse and the silver paint-and-beige suede finish. The seats are two-piece carbon fibre shells that sit on spring absorbers for added comfort.

Behind each seat is a removable, matching suede backpack. Simplicity was also key to the instruments, with all readouts fitting in a pair of round gauges ahead of the driver. Functions such as climate control, lights and the driving mode of the automatic transmission are on four large round switches on the centre console. There is a navigation/ TV display and CD player.

Access to the cockpit is via another tie to the past: swing-up doors. For safety reasons, Mercedes replaced gullwings with doors that swing up 75 degrees from the windscreen pillar. To open each door you touch a button and the handle pops out electrically, retracting after you get in.

Mercedes used aluminum in the front and rear sections of the body, where it deforms in the case of an accident. Carbon fibre is a major component in the central cabin where it provides an extra strong safety capsule. The maker calculates the use of these two materials trims weight by 40 per cent over a steel structure.

Naturally the supercar's aluminium suspension will have such gee-whiz technology as Benz's Electronic Stability Problem, though this time ESP is also tied into the braking system. So in addition to the ABS signals, a computer takes in such data as steering angle and sideways movement. It can brake wheels individually as needed.

There's more. The electro-hydraulic brakes use fibre-reinforced ceramic discs that weigh 67 per cent less and handle twice as much heat as cast-iron brakes.

The wheel-tyre combination for the SLR has licorice-strap Bridgestones, 245/35ZR-19s front and 285/30ZR-20s rear mounted on aluminum wheels.

The engineers in Stuttgart decided against using a V12, reasoning there was more than enough power available by supercharging a V8. The SLR's is based on the 5.5-litre V8 used in Benz's high-performance E55 and ML55 variants.

As in those cars, Benz's performance house AMG will build the engine, adding a compact mechanical blower and intercooler between the cylinder banks to boost power to 420 kW.

How quickly does this combination of light weight and power get you to speed? Mercedes reckons the SLR will reach 100 km/h in about 4.0 seconds and 200 km/h in in a tick over 11 seconds.

Mercedes appears ready to let it go all the way to 320 km/h and not limit it to 250 km/h as German makers have agreed to do with production cars.

The production car will be a joint effort with McLaren - whose technical director, Gordon Murray, will oversee the SLR.

Not just a grand image exercise for Mercedes, the SLR is planned to make a profit. The SLR and the Maybach super luxury car may repair some of the damage caused to the maker's reputation by the slow sales of the Smart car and the mixed press of the A Class.

From 2003, Mercedes plans to build 600-650 SLRs a year, priced at about $US300,000 each. Production will not be confined to the coupe - variations will begin with the SLR roadster shown at Frankfurt last month.

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The size of your tyre is located on the sidewall of your tyre.It will be similar to the sample below.